The variable white to light brown spines turn gray with age.

The spherical to club-shaped, reddish green fruits are 1 to 1.5 cm (0.39 to 0.59 in) long and reach the same diameter.

The first description as Echinocactus haynii was made in 1850 by Christoph Friedrich Otto in Joseph zu Salm-Reifferscheidt-Dyck's Cacteae in horto Dyckensi cultae anno 1849.

[4] Nathaniel Lord Britton and Joseph Nelson Rose placed the species in the genus Matucana in 1922.

[5] Other nomenclature synonyms are Mammillaria haynei (Otto in Salm-Dyck) Ehrenb.